II

MUTTERINGS


24th May, 1900.

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We are beginning to call them Boxers--grudgingly and sometimes harking
back and giving them their full name, "Society of Harmonious Fists,"
or the "Righteous Harmony Fist Society"; but still a beginning has
been made, and they are becoming Boxers by the inevitable process of
shortening which distinguishes speech.

have been talking about them a good deal to-day, these Boxers,
since it has been the birthday of her most excellent Majesty Queen
Victoria, and the British Legation has been _en fete_. Her Majesty's
Minister, in fine, has been entertaining us in the vast and princely
gardens of the British Legation at his own expense. Weird Chinese
lanterns have been lighted in the evening and slung around the
grounds; champagne has been flowing with what effervescence it could
muster; the eleven Legations and the nondescripts have forgotten their
cares for a brief space and have been enjoying the evening air and the
music of Sir R---- H----'s Chinese band. Looking at lighted lanterns,
drinking champagne cup, listening to a Chinese band--where the devil
is the protocol and the political situation, you will say? Not quite